


A Most Important Day

by afteriwake



Series: All Of Time And Space [32]
Category: Doctor Who, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-22 22:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/615227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River’s wedding to the Doctor was going to be an event her family couldn’t miss…even the family that didn’t really know her yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Most Important Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is set a week after “An Unexpected Visitor”/”All Hallows Eve.” I wanted to have a fic where Mycroft gets to know River as opposed to Melody, who he only knows as an infant, and I figured, why not before her wedding? I only have to write two more fics before my big bang story goes live now! Whee!

Mrs. Hudson had agreed to watch Melody for them, which made things easier. She had asked where they were going so dressed up and Amy had said it was a date. And it was, but it was also so much more. It was their daughter’s wedding to their good friend, and that made it more than special. The Doctor picked them, John and Lorna up first, then Mickey and Martha. There was already a companion on board, and Sherlock had been surprised that Anthea had willingly left Mycroft to travel with the Doctor. Then he went and picked up a rather stunned Mycroft, to the amusement of John, Sherlock and Amy.

“So! River doesn’t have a wedding party, and neither do I, and that poses a slight problem,” the Doctor said when they were gathered in the console room. “So Martha and Lorna, there are dresses for you to change into, and John and Mickey, there’s nicer suits for the both of you. I’ve been informed the Holmes family can wear whatever they want since they are the bride’s family, soon to be mine as well, and apparently as Melody grows up her parents impress the idea that individuality is a good thing. And I think the two of you look smashing anyway.”

“Good to know we get that point across,” Amy said with a grin.

“Whatever else you might think, you raise a wonderful daughter,” the Doctor said with a grin. “So if all of you will change, I’ll show you were to go. Amy, Sherlock, the bride is in your room. I hope you don’t mind.”

“That’s all right,” Sherlock said with a nod.

“What am I supposed to do?” Mycroft asked.

“Sit tight and keep your charming assistant company,” the Doctor said as he headed up the stairs. “And then go meet River.” Everyone except Mycroft and Anthea followed him up the stairs, and the Doctor deposited the men in one room and the women in another. Finally he walked up to Sherlock and Amy’s room and knocked on the door. “River? Your parents are here.”

“Come in,” she said from the other side of the door. Amy opened it and Sherlock followed her inside, and the Doctor shut the door behind them, staying outside. River was in a floor length gown, white with tiny beads, and her hair was swept up in a chignon. “What do you think?” she asked as she turned around.

“You look lovely,” Amy said, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth slightly, happy tears in her eyes.

“Thank you,” she said, giving her a hug. Then she looked at Sherlock. “Your thoughts, Dad?”

He nodded. “You look exquisite,” he said.

She beamed at him, then went to the dresser and picked up a red carnation. She went back to Sherlock and put it in his lapel. “I’m glad you both were able to come. And Uncle Mycroft as well, I suppose. As I get older we get closer, but I think this will all be a shock now.”

“You mean he actually gets to know you?” Amy asked.

River nodded. “Quite well. He knows he only gets a short time with me so he lets his guard down and gets to know me. He becomes more human once he gets married.”

“Married? Mycroft?” Sherlock said, surprised.

She nodded. “You don’t have to think too hard to figure out who his wife is, either,” she said with a grin. “But don’t tell him, not yet. She wants to travel with my future husband for a while, and then she’ll sink her hooks into him. We actually act like a real family after he settles down.”

“Knowing he ends up married makes me happy,” Amy said. “And Anthea is a lovely woman. I deal with her more than Mycroft, and we get on well.”

“Well, when they start dating she’ll tell all of you her real name,” River said with a smile. “Mycroft knows it, obviously, and I know it and the Doctor does as well, but we’ll let it be a surprise for the rest of you. I just hope it doesn’t slip out today.”

“Does it feel at all strange that you know everything that’s going to happen to us for the next twenty years and you can’t tell us?” Sherlock asked.

She nodded. “A bit, yes. You’re my parents, and I want you to know, but it might influence things to go a different way and then who knows what will happen? I can tell you small things, though, without worry, like about Uncle Mycroft getting married. Just don’t tell _him_. I don’t think she even realizes that it will happen quite yet, and I doubt she will until she’s done traveling in the TARDIS.” She reached over for her father’s hand. “If you could be a dear, Dad, I’d like it if you could go get my uncle now. I suppose it’s time he met this me and not just my infant self.”

Sherlock nodded and left the room, and Amy put an arm around River’s waist. “I’m glad we could be here,” she said, resting her head on River’s shoulder.

“I am too,” River said, resting her head against her mother’s. “I know we don’t have a lot of time together, and I want to spend as much with you as possible. I do love you and Dad so much.”

“We’re good parents?” Amy asked.

“The best. Canton and I really do have a wonderful childhood, honest. Just remember that when I’m gone. Canton will tell you himself when he’s older, I know that much, but I’ll tell you now to put you at ease.”

“I have a question, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Amy said.

“What would you like to know?”

“Are Sherlock and I together for a long time?” she asked quietly.

“Yes. You are both old and gray when you die, within a week of each other,” River said. “I can tell you who dies first, if you really want to know.”

“No, I don’t need to know that,” Amy said, shaking her head just slightly. “I knew when I was very young that I loved him, and I wanted to be sure I didn’t lose him.”

“Dad turned over the universe trying to find you, Mum,” River said, pulling away and looking at Amy. “He’s not going to let you go ever again.”

“Good,” Amy said with a smile. Then her smile faltered. “It’s not fair that I get so much time with your father and you get so little with the Doctor though.”

“But we make every moment count. Probably after Anthea I’ll travel with him full time. He and I, gallivanting around the stars. I can’t think of a better life than that.” River reached over and hugged Amy again. “Don’t be sad for us, not today. Today is a happy day.”

“I know,” Amy said, hugging her back and resting her chin on River’s shoulder.

The two of them were still like that when the door opened again and Sherlock and Mycroft entered. They pulled apart as Mycroft nodded to River, his eyes just slightly wide. “Are you really my niece?” he asked.

River nodded. “Yes. I’m Melody, after two regenerations. I go by River Song now.” She gave him a smile. “Thank you for coming, Uncle.”

“I’m still not quite sure I understand,” he said.

“Why don’t you and I talk? It’s still a little while to the wedding,” she replied.

“We’ll leave you two alone,” Amy said with a smile as she squeezed Mycroft’s shoulder once. She then joined Sherlock and they left the room.

“So you are a Time Lord, but you’re also human,” Mycroft said once the door shut.

River nodded and sat down at the seat at the vanity. Mycroft went to the rocking chair and turned it to face her before sitting in it. “The first time my parents were together was here, on board the TARDIS, when it was in flight. Because of that, I was born with the same physical make-up as a Time Lord, though I do only have one heart. I can regenerate, just like the Doctor, and I know anything and everything that could happen.”

“How long do you live with your family?”

“Twenty years. About three months after my twentieth birthday I am severely injured and I regenerate into a little girl. The Silence…” She paused. “Do you know who they are?”

“Only what your husband to be told me, which isn’t much.”

“They’re a religious organization that wants to stop the Doctor from doing something. He still doesn’t know what, other than it involves a question of some sort. The organization put an imprint on me when I was born, before my father rescued me and my mother. Anyway, they kidnapped me and took me to 1960s Florida. John Watson rescued me, but I was gravely injured and regenerated again to look like this. I changed my name and hid from the Silence for many years, until they captured me again and forced me into the spacesuit I was wearing when I killed the Doctor. Then I was put in prison for the crime and got released after my infant self was born.”

Mycroft steepled his fingers together and looked at her. “This is a lot to take in.”

“Welcome to the weirder side of the family tree,” River said with a smile. “You do realize it’s yet another set of secrets you need to keep, right?”

“Yes, I’ve realized that,” he said with a slight nod. “It is a good thing that I keep secrets well.”

“I must have gotten that from you, then. My parents are absolutely rubbish at it.” He quirked up an eyebrow slightly. “If they can keep the secret I told them today I will be surprised. My father might, but my mother? I never had one successful surprise party when I was growing up. It was a miracle I didn’t get told what my birthday or Christmas presents were before I opened them.”

Mycroft’s mouth quirked up in a smile slightly. “Yes, the two of them have glaringly obvious tells when they’re trying to keep a secret.”

“And it didn’t help that I was an inquisitive child,” she said with a chuckle. “But I will give them credit where it’s due. They were able to keep my secret as I grew up. I’m grateful for that. I had the fear that I would end up in some government lab as a guinea pig.”

“I would have taken steps to make sure that didn’t happen,” he said. “You are, after all, family.”

She nodded towards him. “I can safely tell you that you never needed to step in. But knowing you would have makes me happy.”

“Having met the Doctor, I must admit your choice in husbands is a bit…odd.”

River chuckled slightly. “If you knew me better you’d know how wrong you are. You’ll realize it as you watch me grow up, I suppose. But suffice to say, he came around a lot as I grew up, and I had the same affliction that my mother had on your brother: a rather unhealthy crush. He doesn’t know it, but he actually gives me my first kiss.”

“I’m surprised he knows how to kiss,” Mycroft said.

River’s answering laughter was more than a chuckle this time. It was rich and warm and throaty. “Oh, Uncle, there’s so much more to him than what is in the official files. In time, you’ll see.”

“How do you know?” he asked.

“Spoilers,” River said before putting a finger to her lips, though she was smiling.

“Spoilers?” Mycroft asked.

“Yes, spoilers. It’s sort of my catchphrase, I suppose, though it’s one of necessity. I know so much about all of your futures, but I can’t influence you at all, so I simply say ‘spoilers’ and leave it at that.”

He nodded slightly. “Understandable. It must be hard sometimes, though.”

She nodded. “Hard, and sometimes very lonely. But I won’t be alone now, and for that I’m grateful.” She smiled a bit wider at her uncle. “Since we have some time alone now, why don’t you get to know me better? I’ll answer as many questions as I can, but there are a few things I won’t, like specific questions about my childhood or your future. But I think it might help if you get to know this me, since I have missed you and I’d like to drop in on you occasionally.”

“Nobody misses me,” Mycroft scoffed.

River smiled. “Trust me, Uncle. People do actually miss you, with me at the top of the list. Now then. What would you like to know?”

\--

It was perhaps two hours later that Sherlock knocked on the door and said it was time. He opened the door and saw both River and Mycroft laughing about something, and he was so shocked to see a smile on Mycroft’s face that he let his jaw hang open. River came up and put her finger under his chin, pushing it up, and only then did Sherlock snap out of it.

“Well now, we have a wedding to attend, don’t we?” Mycroft said, the smile dimming into a more serious look, though the hint of it remained at the corners. River nodded and took her father’s arm, with Mycroft behind them. They made their way to the console room, and saw everyone but the Doctor and Amy there. “Where is he?” Mycroft asked.

“At the altar,” Sherlock said. “Amelia is already seated, but you’re supposed to take Anthea to her seat. Then everyone else can enter.”

“Very well,” Mycroft said as Anthea came up to him. He offered his arm and she took it, and they walked off the TARDIS together. Music could be heard when the doors opened, and about five minutes later Mickey and Martha went, followed by John and Lorna.

River and Sherlock walked up to the doors. “Dad?” she asked.

“Yes?” he said, his hand on the knob.

“When you married Mum, were you nervous?” she asked, looking at him.

He shook his head. “Not in the slightest.”

“Good. I’m not nervous, either.” She smiled at him. “Ready to give me away?”

“I don’t look at it as giving you away,” he said. “I look at it as extending my family.”

Her smile grew wider. “I’m very glad you’re here right now.”

Sherlock smiled slightly. “I’m glad as well.” Then he nodded to the door. “Shall we?”

She nodded. “Yes.” And with that they walked out of the TARDIS to the waiting Doctor, and to a bright new future filled with love and happiness for however long it lasted.


End file.
